This disclosure relates in general to disk cartridges and, but not by way of limitation, to disk cartridges encapsulating flash or rotating disk media.
A removable data cartridge is a portable device that contains some sort of electronically readable information. To access or modify the information, an operator inserts the cartridge into a special receptacle or drive, which interfaces with the cartridge. Examples of data cartridges include floppy disks and tape cartridges that are physically interfaced to the drive. A tape cartridge can be inserted to engage a read/write head. The read/write head magnetically engages the tape to read or write information.
Some tape cartridges contain an electronic memory chip separate from the tape medium which can be used to store some metadata. Often these memory chips are coupled to a RFID system to enable wirelessly reading of the RFID chip memory using electromagnetic energy. The data stored on the tape cartridge cannot be read from the RFID chip, but only the metadata relating to the tape cartridge.
Some magnetic tape cartridges have keying features to prevent some types of improper insertion into a drive. For example, the cross-section of the Travan™ tape cartridges is shaped like an up-side-down capital letter T. Attempts to insert these tapes such that the T shape is right-side-up are prevented by an aperture in the drive bezel. Floppy disks do not have anything to prevent improper insertion such that doing so may damage the disk and/or drive.